I’m brand spanking new to Omnifocus and I’m very excited about using it. I’ve recently switched to Mac and am not looking back. I’ve also been an Evernote nerd for the past year but I would like to transition to Omnifocus for my GTD. My main hurdle so far is contexts. I have my Evernote setup with the “Secret Weapon” strategy. That strategy uses tags for indicators. My question is are contexts and tags the same in principle? Can you assign more than one context?
For example, I will have tasks in my Omnifocus in the future for submitting a proposal to an owner. Let’s say it’s for concrete. Should my context be “Concrete” or should it be “XYZ Concrete Contractors?” I guess my question is if I should keep it general with the “Concrete” or go more specific and name the actual subcontractor?
You might start with this long-running post for examples and general discussion about what folks have in their context list.
I would suggest that contexts will be in one of these categories …
location (office, home, work, errands, …)
tool (computer, phone, email, desk, …)
energy level (high, focused, tedium, mundane, …)
problem solving (my favorite: define, propose, do, report, close …)
[roll your own] …
I would warn against making contexts specific. They are the life-blood of OF, and you do not take a major GTD workflow transplant every time you take on a new project (to keep the analogy).
There are more than a few threads on this one. I cannot find any as fast as the one I noted about the context list itself. The most recent news however seems to hint that OmniGroup is working toward the including the ability to add tags in addition to contexts. Or some variation thereof. Nothing is really specific.
In addition to the excellent resources/suggestions JJW provided, here’s a general comment that may help orient you.
I just watched the intro video for The Secret Weapon. It looks like most of the types of tags are handled differently in OmniFocus.
.What - Rather than tagging this with a context, in OF there is folder and project structure to organize project actions into
.When - Handled by the date fields (due, defer) and flagging (urgency)
.Where - Contexts in OF
.Who - Can be contexts in OF
Didn’t think about it like that teronel. I appreciate it. Again, I will you could apply a tag type system in OF though. Maybe that will be in the next update.
